This Grief Thing

We’re living in a time when many people find death and grief, our own grief or other people’s, almost impossible to talk about. We don’t know what to say, what to do, or how to act. So we stay silent, we pretend that grief doesn’t exist, or we hide it.

This Grief Thing is a national touring project by Fevered Sleep which pushes against this, by opening up conversations about grief and making it visible.

This Grief Thing invites people to think, talk and learn about grief. It’s for people who have experienced grief, and for people who haven’t. Regardless of our own experience or lack of experience with grief, many people find it almost impossible to talk about grief. We don’t know what to say, what to do, or how to act. So we stay silent, we pretend that grief doesn’t exist, or we hide it.

The project is coming to Nottingham between Wednesday 13 March and Sunday 24 March and will happen in Snienton Market:
Unit 8Avenue ASneinton MarketNottinghamNG1 1DT

Day/Date

Shop Opening Hours

Grief Gathering Times

Wednesday 13 March

12PM – 6PM

Thursday 14 March

12PM – 6PM

Friday 15 March

12PM – 6PM

6.30PM – 8PM

Saturday 16 March

10AM – 5PM

Sunday 17 March

12PM – 4PM

Monday 18 March

CLOSED

12.30PM – 2PM

Thursday 21 March

12PM – 6PM

Friday 22 March

12PM – 6PM

10AM – 11.30AM

Saturday 23 March

10AM – 3PM

3PM – 4.30PM

Sunday 24 March

12.30PM – 4PM

11AM – 12.30PM

You can also find pop up versions of the project happening across the city along with a small selection of items from the main shop. Details below.

Day/Date

Location

Time

Friday 22 March

The Wired Café, 42 Pelham Street, NG1 2EG

1 – 3PM

The Orange Tree, 38 Shakespeare Street, NG1 4FQ

4 – 7PM

Saturday 23 March

Nottingham Central Library, Angel Row, NG1 6HP

10.30AM – 1.30PM

Sunday 24 March

Nottingham Contemporary, Weekday Cross, NG1 2GB

2 – 5PM

This Grief Thing focuses on three ways to open up conversation around grief as part of their tour. In each part of their tour they will open a shop hosted by Sam Butler and David Harradine, the Artistic Directors of Fevered Sleep. Fevered Sleep will be welcoming anyone who would like to connect to the project into the calm shop space to think, talk and learn about grief. The shop sells clothing, badges, bags and condolence cards which show words and phrases like ‘Make Space For Grief,’ and ‘Grief Is Like The Weather,’ or ‘Grief = Love.’ These phrases can help conversations about grief to start.

They will also host a series of Grief Gatherings, which provide the opportunity to talk about grief, death and dying in supported small groups. Fevered Sleep also encourage Grief Gatherings to be hosted by other people, who can invite their friends, colleagues or family to come along. These gatherings might be at home, at work, in a cafe or down the pub. Each host will be given a box that contains items from the shop, some thoughts about grief, and suggestions on how to facilitate a conversation about it. You can visit the shop once it’s open, call the office at Dance4 and ask for Rebecca or email Louisa for more information on hosting your own gathering.

Finally in each part of their tour, Fevered Sleep will also run a billboard poster campaign, which asks the question, ‘Can we talk about grief?’ With this they intend to make grief highly visible and to gently ask why we can’t talk about it, reaching out to people who might never encounter the project in other ways.